Tourists’ Fake Grenades Tie Up Bomb Squad, Sunset Traffic

After hotel maids found a cache of hand grenades in a Sunset Boulevard guest room, wary officials had to ask, is it live--or is it Hollywood?

The three fake grenades, souvenirs bought by some Australian tourists, were realistic enough to fool the hotel cleaning crew, which discovered them, and realistic enough to tie up the Los Angeles Police Department’s bomb squad for an hour and a half--along with Sunset traffic.

Police evacuated the Hollywood Metropolitan Hotel and stopped traffic along a three-block section of Sunset between Van Ness and Western avenues while the bomb squad checked out the threat.

That meant some winners and losers among local merchants.

The manager of a Denny’s restaurant on the stretch of Sunset that was closed to traffic reported a significant drop in business. But at the Arby’s Roast Beef on Sunset just outside the sealed-off area, business evidently picked up sharply.

“It was dinner time, people were stopped in traffic,” said general manger Brenda Newsome, “so a lot of them decided to come in and eat.”

Police officer Mike Partain said the faux grenades are legal, but he added that police are contemplating another possible problem:

“Our main concern now is what will happen when the tourists go home,” Partain said. “We don’t want to do this all over again at the airport.”